Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy

The official report of a commission of 50 prominent leaders of the corporate reform movement that includes such notable members as Ralph Nader, David Korten, Herman Daly, Medea Benjamin, and many others

Includes specific, detailed prescriptions for how we can take our country back from corporate rule and integrates them into a coherent strategy

Written in an engaging, hard-hitting style with lots of concrete examples

More than ever, large corporations wield an unjustifiably excessive influence over our lives. The consequences are indeed frightening-environmental destruction, political corruption, erosion of democracy, increased polarization between rich and poor, declining wages and benefits, increased stress and overwork. As corporations become more powerful, these problems will only get worse.

The People's Business offers a comprehensive series of proposals for reforming and restructuring corporations so that they become the people's servants, not their masters. Writing in a lively populist style, the authors pull together recommendations from the prestigious members of the Citizen Works Commission on Corporate Reform to present a clear-headed plan of action.

Drutman and Cray discuss how corporations managed to achieve their current privileged position and offer a comprehensive approach for reconceiving corporations as engines of public prosperity, not private plunder. They outline specific reforms that could be enacted to get corporations out of politics, establish truly public-minded regulation of corporate behavior, safeguard our natural resources, combat unfair market domination by corporations, crack down on corporate crime, and challenge the corporate claim to constitutional rights.

Bolstered with relevant history and recent examples, The People's Business is a lively book that will appeal both to deeply-committed (and often frustrated) long-time activists looking for a coherent approach in the struggle for corporate accountability, as well as relative newcomers looking for immediate measures that could serve as effective means of corporate reform.

The official report of a commission of 50 prominent leaders of the corporate reform movement that includes such notable members as Ralph Nader, David Korten, Herman Daly, Medea Benjamin, and many others

Includes specific, detailed prescriptions for how we can take our country back from corporate rule and integrates them into a coherent strategy

Written in an engaging, hard-hitting style with lots of concrete examples

Featured Books

The official report of a commission of 50 prominent leaders of the corporate reform movement that includes such notable members as Ralph Nader, David Korten, Herman Daly, Medea Benjamin, and many others

Includes specific, detailed prescriptions for how we can take our country back from corporate rule and integrates them into a coherent strategy

Written in an engaging, hard-hitting style with lots of concrete examples

More than ever, large corporations wield an unjustifiably excessive influence over our lives. The consequences are indeed frightening-environmental destruction, political corruption, erosion of democracy, increased polarization between rich and poor, declining wages and benefits, increased stress and overwork. As corporations become more powerful, these problems will only get worse.

The People's Business offers a comprehensive series of proposals for reforming and restructuring corporations so that they become the people's servants, not their masters. Writing in a lively populist style, the authors pull together recommendations from the prestigious members of the Citizen Works Commission on Corporate Reform to present a clear-headed plan of action.

Drutman and Cray discuss how corporations managed to achieve their current privileged position and offer a comprehensive approach for reconceiving corporations as engines of public prosperity, not private plunder. They outline specific reforms that could be enacted to get corporations out of politics, establish truly public-minded regulation of corporate behavior, safeguard our natural resources, combat unfair market domination by corporations, crack down on corporate crime, and challenge the corporate claim to constitutional rights.

Bolstered with relevant history and recent examples, The People's Business is a lively book that will appeal both to deeply-committed (and often frustrated) long-time activists looking for a coherent approach in the struggle for corporate accountability, as well as relative newcomers looking for immediate measures that could serve as effective means of corporate reform.

The official report of a commission of 50 prominent leaders of the corporate reform movement that includes such notable members as Ralph Nader, David Korten, Herman Daly, Medea Benjamin, and many others

Includes specific, detailed prescriptions for how we can take our country back from corporate rule and integrates them into a coherent strategy

Written in an engaging, hard-hitting style with lots of concrete examples

Lee Drutman is the former Communi-ca-tions Director at Citizen Works (www.citizenworks.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded by Ralph Nader to advance justice by strengthening citizen participation in power. His commentaries have been published in many outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, and the Providence Journal and online at TomPaine.com, Alternet.org and CommonDreams.org.

Charlie Cray is a policy analyst and the director of the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, D.C. (www.corporatepolicy.org). He is the former director of the Campaign for Corporate Reform at Citizen Works and a former associate editor of Multinational Monitor magazine.

Foreword by Ralph Nader Introduction: The People's Business 1. Reclaiming the Public Purpose of the Corporation 2. Challenging the Corporate Claim to Constitutional Rights 3. Fixing the Gears of Corporate Governance 4. Freeing Markets from Corporate Control 5. Corporate Crime and Punishment 6. Saving Our Democracy from a Corporate Takeover 7. Building the Movement to Challenge Corporate Power Conclusion: Building the Movement to Challenge Corporate Power